Education

PhD 2008	University of Missouri, Wildlife Science
MS 2003	University of Missouri, Wildlife Science
BS 2000	University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wildlife Ecology

Professional Experience

2023 - present	Associate Professor in Residence, University of Connecticut Director, Master of Energy and Environmental Management program Coordinator, Sustainable Environmental Planning and Management program
2018 - 2023	Assistant Professor in Residence, University of Connecticut Director, Master of Energy and Environmental Management program Coordinator, Sustainable Environmental Planning and Management program
2011 - 2018	Assistant Research Professor, University of Connecticut
2011 - 2011	Leadership Institute Fellow, The Wildlife Society
2008 - 2011	Post-doctoral Research Associate, University of Wisconsin

Courses Taught

NRE 5200	Sustainable Natural Resources Management
NRE 5205	Decision Methods in Natural Resources and the Environment
NRE 5210	Communications for Environmental Decision Makers
NRE 5220	Environmental Planning for Sustainable Communities and Regions
NRE 5830	Internship in Energy and Environmental Management
NRE 5850	Practicum in Energy and Environmental Management

Research Interests

My research team works at the intersection of science and management as it relates to conservation planning, decision making, and landscape and wildlife ecology. Our projects include remote sensing and GIS studies of forest disturbance, vegetation dynamics, and land cover change, and studies of animal resource selection, movements, population abundance, and survival, for species ranging from elk and mule deer to box turtles and birds. More recently, we have focused on environmental planning, especially geospatial tools for protection, management, and restoration of wildlife and their habitats.

Publications

Recent Publications

• Bischoff, K.E., T.A.G. Rittenhouse, and C.D. Rittenhouse. 2023. Introduced competitor reduces abundance of an imperiled cottontail. Biological Invasions 25:3553-3566.
• Yang, X., S. Qiu, Z. Zhu, C.D. Rittenhouse, D. Riordan, and M. Cullerton. 2023. Mapping understory plant communities in deciduous forests from Sentinel-2 time series. Remote Sensing of Environment 293:113601.
• Bischoff, K.E., T.A.G. Rittenhouse, and C.D. Rittenhouse. 2023. Landscape context and spatial attributes matter for New England Cottontail occupancy. Journal of Wildlife Management 87:e22417
• Sullivan, C.J., C.D. Rittenhouse, and J.C. Vokoun. 2023. Camera traps reveal that terrestrial predators are pervasive at riverscape cold-water thermal refuges. Ecology and Evolution 13:e10316.
• Linden, H.M., C.D. Rittenhouse, M.J.S. Peel, I.M. Ortega, and I.P.J. Smit. 2023 Vegetation changes following large-scale fence removal across a protected area network within the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Reserve, South Africa. Ecosystems 26:768–783.
• Wright, D.W., C.D. Rittenhouse, K. Moran, T.E. Worthley, and T.A.G. Rittenhouse. 2023. Responses of insectivorous bats to tree felling in forested wetlands. Wildlife Society Bulletin 47:e1431
• Rittenhouse, C.D., J.M. Tirpak, and F.R. Thompson, III. 2023. A scale dynamics approach to integrate landscape conservation within and across jurisdictional boundaries. Landscape Ecology 38:725–736
• Kovach, A.I., A.E. Cheeseman, J.B. Cohen, C.D. Rittenhouse, and C.M. Whipps. 2022. Separating proactive conservation from species listing decisions. Environmental Management 70:710–729
• Rittenhouse, C.D., E.H. Berlin, N. Mikle, S. Qiu, D. Riordan, and Z. Zhu. 2022. An object-based approach to map young forest and shrubland vegetation based on multi-source remote sensing data. Remote Sensing 14(5), 1091.

• Wright, D.W., C.D. Rittenhouse, K. Moran, T.E. Worthley, and T.A.G. Rittenhouse. 2021. Bat responses to silviculture treatments: Activity over 13 years of regeneration. Forest Ecology and Management 494: 119359.

• Zhang, J., R. Shang, C.D. Rittenhouse, C. Witharana, and Z. Zhu. 2021. Evaluating the impacts of models, data density and irregularity on reconstructing and forecasting dense Landsat time series. Science of Remote Sensing 4: 100023.

• Rittenhouse, C.D., and A.I. Kovach. 2020. Assessment of alternative sampling designs for range-wide monitoring of New England cottontail. Wildlife Society Bulletin: 44:798-806.

• Smiley, R.A., C.D. Rittenhouse, T.W. Mong, and K.L. Monteith. 2020. Assessing nutritional condition of mule deer using a photographic index. Wildlife Society Bulletin 44:208–213.

• Liberati, M.R., C.D. Rittenhouse, and J.C. Vokoun. 2020. Subdivision for conservation? Landscape and Urban Planning 195:103723.

• Liberati, M.R., C.D. Rittenhouse, and J.C. Vokoun. 2019. Addressing ecological, economic, and social tradeoffs of refuge expansion in constrained landscapes. Landscape Ecology 34:627–647.